Hey there!  I hope everyone had a relaxing and fun Christmas break!  Thankfully I did a good job of hiding my naughty side this year, so Santa was very good to me.  😉  We even got a white Christmas!  LOVE!   Granted, it’s Texas, and it only stuck around for two days, but that’s  good enough for me.

So, to catch you up on the latest… Friday I had my heart cath.  Not the same experience I had last year… last time, I had checked in for 3 days, this time it was an out-patient procedure.  Which was fine with me… I’m kind of done with doing my hospital time for now!  My only complaint this time was that they didn’t knock me out!  I think I’m absolutely going to request it… no, demand it if I have to do this again.  It’s not that it hurt so much, it was just very uncomfortable.   Here’s my story…

As is always the case, I had a hot doctor prepping me on the table.  Since I was wide awake, he started chatting away with me, telling me his name, telling me what he was going to do, etc.  Then, before I could respond, he yanks my blanket off waist-down, exposing me and all my “bits” to everyone in the room as he started prepping the area with lotion.  I told him that I was glad he at least told me his name…normally I get a date first before that happens!

Enter my doctor and he tells me he’s going to give me a numbing shot.

Me:  Are you going to knock me out?

Dr.:  I’m going to give you a numbing shot…

Me:  Ok… but can you knock me out?

Dr.:  I’m going to give you another numbing shot…

I feel a very sudden awkward pressure in the crease of my leg/groin area  as they shoved the camera into my leg which causes me to groan very uncomfortably… although internally I felt like I was yelling.

Me (screaming in my head):  Can you just knock me the F out?!?!?!

Dr.:  You ok?  I’ll give you another numbing shot…and maybe some happy juice.

I think I just tuned out at that moment and tried to NOT focus on the tube wiggling up inside me making it’s way to my heart.  Not an easy task when there’s nowhere for you to look and nothing but bright lights and plastic-covered machinery surrounding you to focus on.  Afterwards, because of my staph infection a few weeks ago, he didn’t want to use stitches to close the site and risk the infection coming back, so he ordered me to bed rest for 7 hours so the wound could close itself off.  Not sure if you’ve ever had this type of bed rest, but it’s torture!  I wasn’t allowed to lift my head or even bend my knees for fear that it would unclot the wound!  So I just lay there.  For seven hours.  We tried to watch movies and keep ourselves distracted, but that only lasted so long before I felt like I was going to go nuts!  I seriously feel bad for those pregnant women who have to do this for weeks on end!  Ugh…

After not eating all day (but a few bites of their gfree mac and cheese) I made sure we gorged on Taco Casa on the way home… I totally earned THAT treat!  😉

Now for the outcome- My doctor had assumed that one of the two stints they placed in my heart last year probably closed up and failed and that’s probably what was causing the front part of my heart to die.  However, after looking at the pictures, he said that wasn’t the case, and that both stents were fine, but the artery in between the two stents had completely closed up, and that this is what most likely caused my “silent heart attack”.  It was nice to know the culprit, finally!  Unfortunately, there’s no way to fix it.  Not right now, at least.  A bypass surgery wouldn’t make it stronger, it would just re-route the blood, which at this point is unnecessary   He did tell me of an experimental program he worked on a few years back that takes cells from your bone marrow and transplants them into the heart, and this has shown to produce regrowth in the heart muscle!  It’s not FDA approved yet, but he feels it should be in the near future, and if it does, he thinks I’d be a great candidate for the procedure!  Hey, sign me up!

On another bright side, he told me that he’s sent his transcript in to the transplant committee saying I’m good for a kidney!  The next committee meeting is being held on Jan 11 when they will decide my fate.  After conquering my last hurdle, I believe my path should be clear to go active on the list now!